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May 24, 2016

Raspberry Pi B+ Reset Switch - RetroPie

I didn't have this blog set up when I was putting together my RetroPie machine, but there is plenty of documentation available for all of that and I'm sure mine is already outdated.

For those that don't know...

"RetroPie allows you to turn your Raspberry Pi into a retro-gaming
machine. It builds upon Raspbian, EmulationStation, RetroArch and many
other projects to enable you to play your favourite Arcade,
home-console, and classic PC games with the minimum set-up. For power
users it also provides a large variety of configuration tools to
customise the system as you want."

I really enjoy this little emulation setup. It blows away my previous MK808B Android Mini TV for gaming, works great with my Rockcandy PS3 wireless controller(worth noting is that using two Rockcandy PS3 controllers for 2 player games causes signal dropout) and I love the sleek menu for game/system selection.

One thing I didn't care for with this system, was that when I shutdown the system from the RetroPie menu, in order to turn it back on, I had to unplug the USB Power cable and plug it back in. I did some reading and found a nice solution for myself. A reset switch!

On the Raspberry Pi B+, there is a reset jumper marked RUN on the PCB. This made my task very easy.

I simply soldered on a 2 pin header, drilled the transparent acrylic
case and wired in an SPST switch I picked up at Radio
Shack. I had to be very careful drilling the case, because the acrylic is very prone to cracking. I somehow lucked out!

The end result works quite well for me. I can now leave my RetroPie plugged in at all times and if I want to turn it on, I just press the reset button. It also works as a regular "reset" switch as well, but that could possibly damage the MicroSD card if not shutdown properly(just like any computer). I use the Shutdown feature from within RetroPie and it works great. So, here is the end result!